Magwill
06-27-2008, 01:42 PM
I'll tell you a little story of last night's game vs Rome, India, Greece and Russia. This tale involves an early failure which later became a total victory. And what made me happy was how it seems the developers were right when saying its never too late to win.
Ok so I chose the Mongolians on Emperor difficulty to get some fast victories and to kill off at least one civ before starting to expand. The idea was to try and do a mix game and keeping all 4 victories possible throughout the game. So I settle and start making my warriors. What I didn't think about since this was my first time playing as Mongolians, was that since all the villages will be turned into cities, I wouldnt get any gold from them. This would turn out to be a slight problem because after exploring my land I found that the only way to the main land was blocked by a city and guess who, yes Alexander with his pikemen. So I tried attacking with my horsemen army anyway, but obviously their 22,5 defense killed my horses. I had gotten a lot of cities due to a lot of barbarian villages though, so I started making archer armies. Since I did not have any gold I couldnt get a galley built very fast, but eventually I got it and sent a horsemen group around Athens and captured an Indian city which was only defended by a legion unit (scouting with a galley to know the defense is a great tool btw).
Ok so at this point I wasnt getting anywhere. A lot of badly placed cities due to barbarians not finding prime spots for those kind of things, and one army out in the world. Eventually I made the mistake of forgetting to attack an Indian legion army that was going to attack my city the next turn. So he killed my horsemen army and recaptured the city.
But now to the important part
Rome was generating a lot of culture, money and technologies. They were making super cities and making tons of wonders. Whenever I had a wonder in my que, he got it one or two turns before me. I couldnt get my spies there because he had knights that patrolled his island (he had an island with 4 big cities).
Eventually he had 19/20 in culture victory and I just saw him being the victor since I lacked military power. However, all those hammers I never got use of since he stole my wonders were available for the Oxford University. And I got Advanced Flight out of this. Since I was also industrial I had 3 production from mountains instead of 1 and I had some mountain located cities.
So this is where I got the upper hand, since I now had access to Bombers AND a lot of production. Basically, I built 5-6 bomber armies with veteran status and bombed Rome until there were no defenders left. Then I took my ship and took a horseman army into the city. After this I just had to continue bombing the other roman cities. Basically he would have won in less than 10 turns if I hadnt got advanced flight. And whats even better when you've captured a city in enemy territory, is that you get a refueling city in 1 turns distance making your bombers able to to bomb 3 times before returning.
So my point is that you should always try to build the Oxford University yourself, regardless of what victory you are trying to achieve because if you are unlucky another player can annihilate you. Especially if you are the big city defending type of guy, you dont want your enemy to get these bombers that early.
Ok so I chose the Mongolians on Emperor difficulty to get some fast victories and to kill off at least one civ before starting to expand. The idea was to try and do a mix game and keeping all 4 victories possible throughout the game. So I settle and start making my warriors. What I didn't think about since this was my first time playing as Mongolians, was that since all the villages will be turned into cities, I wouldnt get any gold from them. This would turn out to be a slight problem because after exploring my land I found that the only way to the main land was blocked by a city and guess who, yes Alexander with his pikemen. So I tried attacking with my horsemen army anyway, but obviously their 22,5 defense killed my horses. I had gotten a lot of cities due to a lot of barbarian villages though, so I started making archer armies. Since I did not have any gold I couldnt get a galley built very fast, but eventually I got it and sent a horsemen group around Athens and captured an Indian city which was only defended by a legion unit (scouting with a galley to know the defense is a great tool btw).
Ok so at this point I wasnt getting anywhere. A lot of badly placed cities due to barbarians not finding prime spots for those kind of things, and one army out in the world. Eventually I made the mistake of forgetting to attack an Indian legion army that was going to attack my city the next turn. So he killed my horsemen army and recaptured the city.
But now to the important part
Rome was generating a lot of culture, money and technologies. They were making super cities and making tons of wonders. Whenever I had a wonder in my que, he got it one or two turns before me. I couldnt get my spies there because he had knights that patrolled his island (he had an island with 4 big cities).
Eventually he had 19/20 in culture victory and I just saw him being the victor since I lacked military power. However, all those hammers I never got use of since he stole my wonders were available for the Oxford University. And I got Advanced Flight out of this. Since I was also industrial I had 3 production from mountains instead of 1 and I had some mountain located cities.
So this is where I got the upper hand, since I now had access to Bombers AND a lot of production. Basically, I built 5-6 bomber armies with veteran status and bombed Rome until there were no defenders left. Then I took my ship and took a horseman army into the city. After this I just had to continue bombing the other roman cities. Basically he would have won in less than 10 turns if I hadnt got advanced flight. And whats even better when you've captured a city in enemy territory, is that you get a refueling city in 1 turns distance making your bombers able to to bomb 3 times before returning.
So my point is that you should always try to build the Oxford University yourself, regardless of what victory you are trying to achieve because if you are unlucky another player can annihilate you. Especially if you are the big city defending type of guy, you dont want your enemy to get these bombers that early.